Tag: Rhododendrons

Bench

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Why are you facing inwards bench?

Can’t you see the beautiful view?

The green and yellow hills

Beyond the fence…

Tiny farmhouses dotted alongside feilds

Sun shining on a golden harvest?

But I look in, said the bench

I see the quarry garden

Dug out of soil and stone

Carved into a bowl

Lined with rhododendrons

Azaleas, beech trees, oaks

Full of colour now, gaudy flowers

A waterfall splashes and ploshes

In the quarry cauldron

Hidden sculptures in maze like paths

Yes beyond the fence is lovely

But the Dorothy Clive garden is special.

Dorothy Clive garden

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Wondrous garden in the countryside on the borders of Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. In Willowbridge I think? Every spring my hubby and I would go to see the rhododendrons in flower in the Quarry garden, sometimes they were fully in bloom, other years the blooms hadn’t opened or were going over. Today they were perfect. I just wish my hubby was here still to see them. I’d been to the hospital for more tests so this was a treat for my sister who had come with me. She held onto me on the steeper slopes. Today it was very blustery and overcast with a cold wind but at least it wasn’t snowing like it had been in some previous years.

Rhododendrons are lovely

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But they don’t last long. The huge clusters of blooms soon brown and fade. They are great at the right time of the year, but then they are just big green bushes and they need underplanting to make them look more interesting. Here there are wild buttercups and ferns which were just growing below the rhododendrons. Mostly they shade out other plants and in some places they are cut back and removed because they are not native to the UK and they can spread and can be invasive. The shade they cast stops native saplings growing.

Rhododendrons

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Rhododendrons look lovely, but they can be an invasive species. They shade out smaller plants and the ground around them becomes bare. I know in some places they are removed. Rhododendrons are native to Asia but were imported by plant collectors in the Victorian era. They ‘layer’ themselves to spread, a branch can touch the ground and where it rubs against the soil it will send out roots (or layer). This also happens with other plants. Forest and parkland have to be managed to protect it from invasive species like this and others such as Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed.

Dorothy Clive garden today

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A few miles from Stoke on Trent in the Staffordshire countryside is the Dorothy Clive garden. We went there today because I knew the rhododendrons would be in flower and also I wanted to see if I could drive that far (my arm is still shaking and very sore and it’s hard to drive). Luckily I was OK and it was a gorgeous day and a lovely place to visit. You walk up from the car park at the bottom, past the pool, up a steepish slope covered in trees and flowerbeds. There is a cafe at the top and a dry garden and quarry garden at the top (where the majority of the rhododendrons are). There is also a stag sculpture and a waterfall. From the top of the garden you can see three counties, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. Worth a day out….

Gunnera

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One plant we tried to grow in the garden was Gunnera, seen here at Rode hall. It’s a large leafed plant with a spiky surface. It grows in wet conditions and the leaves can get to 2 or 3 feet across. This was by a large pond that has a waterfall at one end flowing down a stream to the lake. There are a large variety of plants at the hall but this is a favourite.

We also noticed there were rhododendrons in flower today, which means we must visit the Dorothy Clive garden to see how that is growing.

Six years ago…

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Bright flowers, photo taken six years ago. I think it’s a rhododendron, glowing like an orange sun. Talk about flower power. I’m not going to try and duplicate or mirror this photo because it’s really stand alone.

This would have been taken at the Dorothy Clive Garden on the Shropshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire border. It has a quarry garden at the top of its slope which is full of beautiful rhododendrons in late spring and early summer. Do visit if you can. Visiting has been limited due to the virus but I do know they are open and you can find out more from their website.

Rhododendrons are out.

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This is an image from Rode Hall that I photographed a couple of weeks ago. As you can see the rhododendrons are in full bloom. These showy shrubs originally come from the far east, China I think? They are grown for their flowers which can come in a variety of colours.

They do spread though and can shade out native plants which is why they are sometimes drastically cut back in wooded areas, allowing light to penetrate the canopy of leaves.

I must visit the Dorothy Clive garden soon. They have a large and mixed collection in their quarry garden. They are in the countryside west of Newcastle-under-Lyme.